Background: In the summer of 1951 positional warfare had come to Korea. The Eighth Army commander, James A. Van Fleet, ordered 2nd Infantry Division of X Corps to eliminate a sag in the line, in the high Taebaek Mountains of eastern Korea. The original target was Hill 983, north of Inje. Read more >>

Background: The Chinese entered the Korean War in November 1950 and drove United Nations forces back below Seoul in January 1951. By March 1951 UN troops had advanced back north to about the 38th parallel. Read more >>

One important reason why morale in Eighth Army had improved so dramatically was that, starting around the first of the year [1951], the army inaugurated a new program of five-day Rest and Recuperation (R&R) leaves in Japan, for which the lowliest GI and the highest officer were eligible. Read more >>

[In the first days of the Korean War,] there were two main approaches for the North Koreans to Taejon: through the village of Taepyong-ni on the Kum directly north of the city, and through the village of Kongju eight miles west. The North Korean had two divisions, each with 6,000 men. Read more >>